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GameSpot

Destiny: The Taken King pre-review impressions

GameSpots's Destiny: The Taken King review is on the way, but in the meantime Mike Mahardy and Erick Tay have been playing it all night. They come on set to tell the folks at The Lobby what they think of Destiny's biggest expansion yet.

15:17 / 16 September 2015

Transcript

The highly anticipated expansion for Destiny the Taken King is finally out.
Eric Tay and Mike Mohardy.
You boys put in some work.
You stayed here after TGI's 2AM played Taken King on live stream for hours and hours and hours.
I came back in this morning, you were still playing you crazy person.
But what I wanna know first of all is, have viewers of The Lobby out there wanna know, you guys had a chat last week.
I believe you said the first one's at-
It was at PAX.
PAX?
Yeah.
First one to 40 was gonna get a steak dinner purchased by the other.
I see some body language here.
[LAUGH] Eric, how did you get on?
I lost.
Okay.
But I think at the end of the day.
Naturally.
Yes, he did beat me.
I will say that.
But I think that at the end of the day we can both say that it's like, kind of like not what we expected.
Yeah.
[LAUGH]
Because I think, I think in our minds we both knew that it would.
We both felt like it would come down to this race of like, okay, he's here, I'm here.
If I do this faster, I'm gonna win.
You'll figure out the fastest way to 40.
And it wasn't that at all.
&gt;How did you do that?
How did you get to 40 first?
Well we both saved up a bunch of bounties.
We filled all 16 spots before the expansion lodge so we could turn them in right away and get all the experience.
**** cheaters.
I know a lot of people did that.
Just so you don't think it's a, the higher level is to start playing higher level stuff and have access to better gear.
But as it turns out, it was going a lot faster than we thought.
But I also had this cloak equipped that he had, but he didn't have it equipped, because he didn't know it gave you 10% experience, and I [CROSSTALK]
Yeah.
So, I started popping the bounties and we both felt the controller vibrating.
So we backed out and saw we were level 38.
Or he was 38.
I'm like, oh my god, I gotta hurry.
I went to turn in my bounties.
I turned in all 16, and I backed out to level 40.
And he was like.
[INAUDIBLE]
The last one was a year one bounty, so you couldn't just turn it in from the screen, you had to actually go to the person.
I kind of said out loud, I'm like, oh ****, I'm out of bounties.
And he's like, oh no!
And then I was like, oh wait, I have one more, and go turn it in.
And I turn and I hit 40 while he was kind of calming down, I think.
So, like, a matter of seconds-
Yeah.
Or like a matter of inches.
Yeah.
Unbelievable.
So, [UNKNOWN], you feel like you miss that at all?
I mean, I don't know.
Unleveling?
No.
Because, to be honest we had this discussion on the stream.
The forty number was one number for you to get to that you would kind of You would technically just progress through the story, but it's not really the number that matters at the end of the day.
So, let's talk about what matters then.
So [UNKNOWN] the first thing I wanna know about is, one of my sort of gripes about with destiny is I never Felt like there isn't much in terms of what I like about games.
Gaming content, story, mission, stuff that's unique.
I always felt there was a lot of copy and paste in Destiny.
So, from what I'm hearing around the office, [UNKNOWN] has got some really fascinating story and mission stuff going on.
Eric, first of all, what do you think about- [INAUDIBLE]
So, first of all, just structurally how things are
how they went about it this time is like way better than what they've done like previously.
And I was saying this last night too that they kind of took like a blizzard model approach with, like they did it with Starcraft recently.
What they would do is you kind of get like this lead up to the mission.
You either have some type of cinematic, or you have your conversation with your A quarter master quest giver.
Yeah.
And then you kinda go along.
Collects ten of these go doers, kill them.
Not necessarily like that anymore but then after your mission, you would get a little bit more story flavor on what you just did or what your next steps were.
So it kind of weaves the story better, whereas in the past, it was like You kinda got the mission, you did it, you kinda heard from Dinkle and then you just kinda like, oh okay, here's the next one kinda thing.
But it just made them feel more special to sorta flush them out in terms of narrative and cutscences.
Yeah, it just feels smoother I think.
And I think, even for me, like I don't care that much about the story personally.
But I can tell what they're doing.
And just seeing the little bits of cinematics just here and there I mean, granted, it's taken them a year to get here.
But, like.
Yeah.
Just those little nuggets is, like, a big deal.
I think, I've seen quotes of, like, the first 30 minutes of Taken King's story is, like, killed Destiny Year One.
Yeah.
&gt; Like, that's how good it is.
So much of that is there Mike?
So the main thing that I like is the characterization.
I mean, they're telling a story.
It's a very small scale story in terms of, for anybody who's actually gone to bungee.net, which I have done often.
But I was so interested in the lore behind Destiny.
Because there's so many hints at this awesome story, but it wasn't in the game.
There really is a huge amount of lore.
Just so many different wars in the past.
It affected what happened, and the traveler came anyway.
[CROSSTALK]
So have they transitioned that to actually being in the game there through the stories?
Not the over-arcing lore, as much.
I mean, with Oryx being the villain of The Taken, he The Taken King, and then also the Hive King.
The Taken themselves are kind of this weird forest that keeps absorbing all the other factions, you'll probably see it soon.
They become this new faction that's kind of just these specter looking things that have new abilities in addition to the old ones.
But yeah, the characterization, Nathan Fillion voices Cade, the hunter, vanguard leader.
And he's kind of the sarcastic one of the group and he kind of takes things into his own hands and just goes off.
Without spoiling anything, he paves his on route with what he wants to do.
So how is the story?
Is there a lot of it?
Is there a lot of missions?
Like in terms of hours, have you completed it yet?
Oh yeah, the story is what took us, three hours?
Three, four.
Three or four, yeah.
Yeah.
What about in terms of replayability?
No?
[CROSSTALK]
Well, once you beat the Taken king, which is half the story, you continue with the Taken.
Well, that's the story, but you continue with the Taken wars, which those have more context surrounding them as far as Fighting the taken army kind of, after that it's like end game single player cooperative story content almost.
Right.
It's separate from strikes and PVP and everything.
And raids, the raid obviously.
Yeah.
But it's story driven missions.
You can do single player, co-op.
I did a few single player but Tae and I did a few this morning.
And yeah, there's this good context running which I think was lost on previous destiny missions.
So you kind of have a general understanding of why you're doing what you're doing, which is always a nice thing.
I didn't go into Destiny for the story but it also gives you a sense of impetus when you're doing something.
If you know why you're doing it and how it's serving the overall story line.
Cool.
So outside of that, I guess this core, like, sort of three hours of slushy, meaty content, what else are we looking at here?
I know there's a bunch of new subclasses, there's a new area as well.
Like, checkbox this stuff.
What are we looking at in Taken King.
Well, we've yet to see the raid, which is, like, the big deal, of course.
Yeah.
It's always been a pretty big deal.
Not having one in House of Wolves and now finally having probably a proper one, well, I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to assume because they basically took one off, right?
The new area is great.
I think we're seeing some of it here, the Dreadnaut.
It's a ship outside the rings of Saturn or right inside them.
Floating.
And the cool thing about it is there's so much stuff you're trying to find like little nooks and crannies.
Some of them are quest related like go find these calcium fragments and you just look around the environment and you're like maybe there's one there.
And I'm literally jumping everywhere trying to find this stuff.
And that's the kinda cool things, right?
There's even this other spot that I haven't confirmed this, but I've heard some stuff- is that, some of these quests require you to do things like: You have to dance to trigger the event, or there's a sparrow event, or something-
Like some Dark Souls, Bloodborne [UNKNOWN]
Yeah, exactly!
So then I started doing Bloodborne things.
I started triggering my point, I tried to wave, you know And that wasn't really in Destiny before, I mean like sure there were some secrets but it feels like the dreadnought, like the area itself, there's just so many secrets.
There's all these chests, it's like you need a key of something to open this, it's like where the hell do I get this key at.
There's numerous amounts of things and we haven't even tried the court of war.
So there's just a bunch of stuff, a bunch of new stuff and I think.
I was telling Mike this, I mean, I know why there's so many DLCs in between something like this, like a meaty, a really meaty DLC.
This, to me, is more like of a wow expansion-
Yeah.
Where, like, you've been playing
Main game, you're playing the main game, and then here's your game changer, right?
Here's something new.
You're kinda starting all over again, and that's why I was going all in.
I kept playing, because I was like, this is like levelling again, re-getting my gear, the grind is back.
Unfortunately, I will say the grind is pretty grindy though.
So someone that's casual is probably not going to make the raid Friday
World First people will go for it, that's what they want, and then people will slowly gain into, it, and then like--
So let's talk about the final piece of the puzzle, then.
It's a review in process up on Gamespot.com right now--
Yeah.
We'll get into a lot of what we've talked about already.
Why is the full review not up as of yet, then?
Sure, so I played about 15 hours of Ting Ting a couple weeks ago, and I got to play through the story, the endgame single player content, at least most of it, PvP maps, which have been out for a week now, actually, as of today, people have to pay for those now, the new ones.
Right.
But, I played the strike and everything, but, I didn't play nearly enough, too see how, the, quest system will figure into and just like the, gaining better loot and you know the grind that [UNKNOWN], would, how it'll continue after that fifteen hour mark because fifteen hours is not that much in Destiny
Yeah.
and I also, I wanted to go back and play with a lower level character so, this is my, the one I started with this morning at thirty four
Before we went to forty.
There's a buff you get.
You can just start a new character, or any character, really.
Taking king content, you need to reach level 25 so the postmaster will give you a buff you pop in and you automatically go to 25.
Also just want to start from level 1, just to see how you're going to progress to the quest now.
But also the big thing is the raid, that's a huge part of the expansion.
Having not touched it, I'm nowhere near having a final opinion on the expansion as a whole.
Do we know anything about the raids?
Do we know where it's gonna be, what it's, content wise?
Yeah, it's on the Dreadnought, but it's, you're fighting, not to spoil story stuff.
Don't then.
Yeah, it's called Kings Fall, and I think it's pretty public who you're fighting, right?
You're fighting Orrick.
Yeah.
Let's just say the story Even if it was three to four hours, I think it is the buildup, lead-up to the raid.
Yeah.
And some of the Taken War stuff as well.
But yeah, you're pretty much gonna fight Big Daddy.
[LAUGH] So my main takeaway so far that's like a factual thing that I have an opinion about is that Taken King is much better about rewarding you for your time.
I think there is a grindstone, but I think More than ever, there's still the element of luck playing into it.
But I know what I'm working for, for the most part.
And I know it might be like a legendary weapon, or a legendary weapon upgrade, but I know I'm gonna at least get that in whatever form at the end, because the quest tells you.
So I feel much more in [UNKNOWN] in year one, that My rewards are based less on chance than on [CROSSTALK]
So many times you would have finished something and then just not even gotten anything that was worth your time.
So I guess too now then we're basically looking at the first year of Destiny.
What do you think of the [UNKNOWN]?
as somebody who has enjoyed destiny, who's been playing Destiny for the past year, is this enough of a, does it feel like a big meaty expansion?
Does it feel like it's, like it was worth the wait.
Definitely worth the wait, I think.
I wish there were more of these and less of these smaller ones
Right
if possible, but I know they can't do it, I don't think.
Because we've had these conversations of, not enough content, not enough content, right.
And that's why there's all these small deals and I get it, right.
But like this expansion is like a true expansion and I wish there were more of these and less of the like smaller deals.
Cause this is actually, like it feels like A WOW expansion.
Like, I feel like, great I'm looking forward to it, I'm looking forward to kind of starting fresh, even though some people are, like, hating bungee because they're like, oh my god, all the time I spent in Year One with all this stuff, it's like, well I guess you haven't played an MMO before.
[LAUGH] Yeah, sounds familiar.
Because that's what it is.
Basically.
Mike, final word on it.
What do you think about it?
Obviously, we'll see a review later in the week, but what are your thoughts right now?
I'm cautiously optimistic so far.
Of the 25 hours I've played total from a couple weeks ago and today, I need to see more, but it reminds me of Reaper of Souls with that for Diablo 3.
Yes.
You jump back in, and we jumped back in, we were getting green items.
What are those called, unique?
Or just regular?
In Diablo?
No, no, no.
Oh, in Destiny.
[CROSSTALK]
We were getting green gear that's a lower level gear, and it was better than the legendary gear that we had.
So it's like the loot is a little more relevant And you're, I feel like I'm constantly have a good chance to get something that I'm gonna swap in.
Obviously when you get higher levels, that's when you start doing the stuff like Tay loves that I really like.
Yeah.
The late game content.
But, as of now, the journey there is much more interesting.
Cool.
I'm gonna see your review on gamespot.com?
We don't have a definite date yet, the raid released Friday, so we're gonna play through that.
Hopefully we'll try to all be ready around then.
Which, you know We'll see how likely that is.
All right, so it's gonna be a fun weekend then.
Yeah.
So this weekend or early next week.
Okay, cool.
Awesome.
Thanks very much.
Mike McHardy, RK, coming on talking all about Destiny as is the case [UNKNOWN] all year around.
We'll probably talk again in a couple of months [LAUGH] when the next piece of DLC comes out.
Or maybe after that.
The next patch and then-
They've got at least two if you believe the picture.
Oh, believe it.
They have at least two, Eric.
The lawsuit last week is anything to go by, they have at least seven more years of soundtrack to go through.
So I'm sure they'll -&gt;&gt; Nullen.
Exactly.
Thanks very much.
And also, I have to say as well You did a really good job, especially considering you guys have been up for like 24 hours.
Well, him especially
I feel like I've hit my third wind.
You're doing all right, look at this.
This is only my second one.
It's not that bad.
It's not that bad.
You can have four energy drinks in one day, right?
It's only two.
Right.
Constant professional, even when he's.
So why not him so.
I gave away all this Starbucks.
No I thought the major coffee brands, we don't say who it is.
Oh, sorry.
But it tastes like **** [INAUDIBLE]
It's a mocha.
Nasty.
Let us know what you think about Taken Kings if you play some, let us know if you're looking to get back into Destiny, did you sort of get off the board and Looking to get back into it, now that the expansion and the hype is back.
Now that the grind is back.
Let us know in the comments below.
[MUSIC]

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